California Photo Scout

Bulls Eye, San Francisco Maritime Museum

Ahoy Sailors and Photographers! Step on the historic Hyde Street Pier vessels and back in time. Discover a piece of California’s marine history at San Francisco’s Maritime National Historic Park.

San Francisco’s history is that of a seafaring people. Ships brought the first conquistadores, the gold diggers, and the settlers and hauled goods back to the old world. The Maritime Park aims to preserve this history and educate interested visitors. The easy access to these photogenic ships makes this also a prime location for photography. Even better, your fellow travelers can stay busy while you shoot a feature every travel photographer highly values.

Soak in the spirit of adventure and learn about the difficult and often romanticized lives of the sailors who roughed it around Cape Horn without our modern-day creature comforts. Marvel at the fascinating machinery of a steam tugboat over 100 years old. Tour a paddle steamer ferry that holds a surprise in its belly and see a different face of the city by the bay.

How to get there

The Maritime Museum is located on Hyde Street Pier. The visitor center is located at the intersection of Hyde Street and Jefferson Street.

If you arrive in the morning on a weekend, you can usually find free parking on Van Ness north of Bay Street.

GPS position

• 37° 48.538’N 122°25.269’W

How to photograph the San Francisco Maritime Museum

Balclutha Figurehead and Golden Gate Bridge

The large sailing vessel Balclutha, a square-rigger, is visible from many hills in the city. It is the centerpiece of the Museum and capable of luring large crowds.

Get on board of the Balclutha and discover the front and aft decks. You can find many appealing compositions with the city skyline in the background and parts of the ship in the foreground. The bow deck offers the best views. You can juxtapose the Transamerica Pyramid and the Coit Tower against the Bowsprit, the pole extending forward from the vessels prow.

Don’t forget to capture some detail shots of the moorage, anchor and ships bell.

The stern deck’s wooden planks form a perfect foreground. Using a wide-angle lens, you can augment it and include large parts of the ships rigging, giving viewers the impression of standing on board the ship themselves.

Barrels in the storage of the Balclutha

The fun doesn’t stop here. You can explore the lower decks as well, discover how the crew and the captain lived, and see how they stored cargo and kept inventory.

Photography on the lower decks is challenging due to the low light. This forces you to increase ISO speed and use wider apertures. With a wide-angle lens, you can increase your exposure time while shooting handheld and you can still achieve good depth of field with wider apertures. A lens with image stabilization is a definite advantage. Increase your ISO speed, so that you can shoot safely without getting blurry images. Noise is never as bad as blurry, unprofessionally looking images.

You are probably aware that your exposure time should be shorter than 1/(focal length) to avoid blurry pictures. I have found that you can go a bit slower, but you have to take many images. Camera shake is random in nature. When you take many images, you increase your chance of getting a steady shot. Throw away the blurry ones and keep the one good photograph.

Doors of the Hercules Tug Boat

The Hercules is a steam-powered tugboat from 1907. Its characteristic red smokestack and superstructure set it apart from similar ships. The beautifully restored boat is operational and you can tour it. Getting a good composition is difficult though. Too many other boats and the landing stage are in your way. They create cluttered compositions.

The image above is a tight composition of the doors, deliberately leaving out clutter. The bulls-eye photograph at the top of the article is another example. Old brass clocks and parts of the machinery also work well.

The Eureka, a paddle steamer ferry, holds classic trucks and cars on its lower deck. You will face similar lighting conditions as in the cargo hold of the Balclutha. Using flash, even just a hint of fill-flash, is even less desirable when you photograph old cars. Reflecting flashlight from the chrome parts can cause unsightly highlights.

Balclutha and Coit Tower

Take a stroll along the Aquatic Park Beach out towards the crescent shaped Municipal Pier. From the beach, you will have a better view of the entire Balclutha than you have from Hyde Street Pier. Continue onto the Municpal Pier to position the ships next to or against the San Francisco Skyline. The crescent shape is ideally suited for photography. You can walk further out and thus move the respective positions of skyline and ships, to line them up just the way you like it.

You will also have one of the best land-based views of Alcatraz. The long side of the prison is visible from here, making it look much more imposing than the view you see from Pier 39.

If you still have time, you should consider walking up Hyde Street for a few blocks. Between Chestnut Street and Francisco Street, at the steepest portion of Hyde Street, you will have an excellent overview of the entire Hyde Street Pier and the vessels below.

Best Time of the Day and Best Season

The views with San Francisco in the background are better during the afternoon. You can get good photographs of the vessels throughout most of the day. Photograph the ships first and the views last to take advantage of the suns movement.

Time required

About 3 hours for photography, more if you also browse the museum at the visitor center and take a tour.

Equipment

• Wide-angle lens
• Image Stabilized Lens
• CP filter for outdoor shots
• Cell phone (self guided audio tours are available via a toll free number)

Fees

The entrance fee is $5. Since they are part of the National Park Service, your National Park Pass is also valid here.

The first Sunday of every month is free.

Close Locations

• Fisherman’s Wharf
• Fort Mason
• Cable Cars
• Lombard Street
• Pier 39
• Pier 7
• Coit Tower
• Fort Point
• Views of Presidio
• Presidio historic walk
• Palace of Fine Arts
• Marina and Crissy Field
• Alcatraz

Useful Resources

• NPS Website for the Maritime Museum
• Sailing Ship Terminology

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